


The Moon

by makomaragi



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Black & White | Pokemon Black and White Versions
Genre: Canon Related, Canon Universe, Depression, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Female Friendship, Femslash February, Femslash February 2019, Friendship/Love, Hurt/Comfort, Mental Health Issues, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-09
Updated: 2019-03-09
Packaged: 2019-11-14 15:59:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18055568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/makomaragi/pseuds/makomaragi
Summary: Shortly after the explosion at the Dream Yard, Fennel takes to staying at her best friend's apartment for a while, unsure what to do. Written for Femslash February 2019.





	The Moon

The professor had been at home for nearly an hour before the time she realized she hadn’t eaten all day. She only realized it because the sun had disappeared from the sky, the moon’s light doing a poor job of lighting the room now.

 

It was easy to forget to eat when she stayed so busy all day, feeling as through she made fifty laps around the entire lab by the time the day was over. Trainers arrived to pick out starter pokemon, back to her office to fill in their information, more paces in the other direction to switch out and receive pokemon from trainers farther along in their badge quests. It seemed as though the work never stopped, not that she was annoyed by it, just that there never seemed to be a moment to gather herself in the midst of it all. If the lab didn’t have set hours of operation for trainers, she was sure she’d never find time to do anything else. Keeping in touch with them in her off time was one thing, but she was certain she’d never get any sleep at all if trainers arrived at all hours to pick out starters. All of this on top of her own research.

 

Peering in her fridge, there weren’t many choices. Some frozen dinners, some fruits and vegetables she felt obligated to buy that she was pretty sure had been in there for a while, some hard boiled eggs and...not much else.

 

It felt like she always ordered delivery from the same three or four places, not that there were many to choose from in Nuvema. The microwave dinners didn’t seem all that bad.

 

Grabbing two of them at random, she uncovered the contents and put them in the microwave one at a time, throwing them both on plates and retiring to her bedroom.

 

“Here, I made you some dinner. Please eat something.”

 

Fennel pulled the covers off over her head, pushing herself upright. She looked over the plate Aurea had put on the nightstand, back at the professor, then back at the plate. Macaroni and cheese, something that resembled mashed potatoes, and breaded chicken. “I’m not really hungry right now. Thanks, though.”

 

Her Munna nudged her shoulder, letting out a soft cry. The Pokemon rarely left her side these days, either hovering over her or snug against her side as she was now.

 

“When was the last time you ate?”

 

Fennel gave her whimpering pokemon a pat, “Yesterday? The day before? I don’t know, I had some water while you were gone.”

 

Aurea chose to ignore this for now, settling next to the other woman in the bed and helping herself to dinner.

 

“Your appointment is tomorrow at 4. You’re not skipping it this time, I’m leaving work to take you.”

 

Fennel made some sort of dismissing grunt, sliding back down in to the bed. “I really don’t want to, but if you’re making me.”

 

“Your Munna has been sick for weeks, Fennel. Please, do it for her, at least.”

 

The dream scientist wasn’t about to argue with Aurea on her Pokemon’s welfare, especially because she was right on this one, and it was something that could be helped. The nightmares she was having constantly, while she didn’t remember vividly, were all the same. No wonder Munna had getting sick from eating them when it was all she could provide for her. She couldn’t even take care of her dearest Pokemon anymore without fucking it up even subconsciously.

 

“I said I would, Aurie.” Munna nuzzled against her again in clear concern of her master.

 

The professor accepted this answer, returning to shoving food in her mouth. If Fennel wasn’t going to eat, she easily could of finished her plate as well. But this was no time to be selfish. She held up the fork in front of Fennel, who stared at it for a few long seconds before hesitantly taking a bite.

 

“That’s not too bad,” she admitted as she pushed herself more upright.

 

“Well, yours is right there, help yourself. Before it gets cold.”

 

The scientist finally placed the plate on her lap, stirring the noodles around and taking a few lazy nibbles, but mostly moving the food around on the plate.

 

Such was how Professor Juniper spent her free time lately, eyeing the other woman like a Pidgeot, ensuring she was getting some type of nourishment. She couldn’t recall how long Fennel had been there now. Three months? Four? Six?

 

There was no point in asking Fennel of her long term plans anymore, because she didn’t have any.

 

Fennel outright refused to return home to Kanto, even though they both knew it was probably for the best that she did. She wouldn’t go back home until she proved her point of her studies in Unova, and even Professor Juniper hadn’t the slightest clue what that was anymore. Hadn’t the Dream Yard been her end game?

 

Fennel had remained in her apartment in Striaton for about two weeks after the explosion at the Dream Yard. Technically one week, spending a few days in the hospital as a precaution despite her repeating that she was fine. Until one day she had called the professor, sobbing that she couldn’t take it in that city anymore, and without a second thought, was whisked away to the apartment above the Juniper Pokemon Lab.

 

But the thoughts and the nightmares didn’t stop.

 

Aurea caught her talking to her mom on the phone a few times. She wasn’t lying, but she wasn’t telling the entire truth, either. Fennel had told her that she was staying with her friend until she figured out what she was going to do, which was partly true, but she wasn’t actively trying to do anything, either. The explosion at the Dream Yard had made international headlines, she couldn’t have hidden it from her family even if she wanted to. They had made the trip to Unova to visit her in the hospital and stayed with her for a few days, but Fennel wanted them gone. They had went as far to book her a flight home, which she refused.

 

The professor felt like she was intruding if she had been there while Fennel’s family was. She had never met them, either, though Fennel always spoke fondly of them in the past. It just didn’t seem like an appropriate time to meet her best friend’s parents and sister.

 

She managed to visit her twice in the hospital, even admitting to Fennel that she wasn’t sure why she was there besides more than a wellness check. Fennel had made it out of the building with nothing more than a few cuts and bruises, while she knew others on her team weren’t as lucky.

 

The only thing Fennel cared about initially was finding her beloved Musharna – that was, until, she realized how lucky she was to of made it out. Or maybe she knew it all along and it was using it as a distraction to her guilt. Either she had given up or her waking life became as hellish as her nightmares, because it was shortly after that she found herself where she was now, crashing in her best friend’s bed.

 

It was coaxing from both Aurea and her own mother that drove her to finally see the doctor about her uncharacteristic insomnia and nightmares. She wasn’t sleeping, she wasn’t eating, she wore the same pajamas for days at a time. Then she complained that the medicine prescribed to her only made her want to sleep, which only resulted in the panic attacks and nightmares that seemed more frequently than not lately.

 

The pair had been sitting in silence for a while – Fennel still barely picking at her food, the professor tossing her own empty plate aside.

 

“Have, um...you talked to your family lately?”

 

“My sister is thinking about moving here, to Unova. She developed a new PC system that the League took interest in,” eyes still on her plate in disinterest.

 

“I heard something about that.”

 

“So stupid. It’s like she’s coming here just to show me up, that she’s successful here, and I’m not.”

 

“She wanted to bring it to Unova to come help you, Fennel.”

 

“Then why here? Of the tons of other regions, she happened to pick the one that I moved to, to get from far away from home as I could? She’s doing it to shove it in my face, how is that going to help me?”

 

“Because she cares about you, and so do I.”

 

“I don’t know why,” Fennel placed the still mostly full plate back on the night stand.

 

Aurea never knew what to say when Fennel made such statements about herself, only deciding that her actions would speak louder than words eventually. She knew agreeing with her sister moving to the region would only make her more hostile, and despite Amanita having the best intentions, Fennel had only seen it as a ploy to humiliate her for some reason.

 

Aurea must have shifted her weight unintentionally, probably in the discomfort of the conversation, which caused Fennel to latch on to her arm, pulling it against her chest and holding it between her arms.

 

“Please stay with me,” Fennel pleaded with her in the same tone as she had just about every night she was there. Affection was never something that came naturally to the brunette, but she never seemed to mind when Fennel did this, despite her feeling extremely stiff at the initial gesture. Nor did she understand why Fennel always seemed terrified that she was going to leave at any given point. Once she was in the bedroom with her, it was usually where she needed to stay until the next morning if only to quell both of their worries. The full size bed was an upgrade from the twin mattress on the floor that they shared in their old apartment, but it probably wasn’t meant for two people. Aurea had become accustomed to sleeping alone in the larger bed with room to spare, but anymore it didn’t make a difference to her if Fennel shared it with her or not.

 

“I don’t care if you get your laptop or phone or whatever and do work, but please just stay here. Wake me up if you think I’m having another nightmare, if Munna starts acting funny...or just wake me up in general, so I don’t sleep deep enough to have a nightmare.”

 

The professor had lost her share of sleep just as well over the last few months, even if it wasn’t for the same reason Fennel had. She lost count of the nights she had purposefully kept herself awake to keep an eye on her if she was having a particularly bad night, thankful both in the moment and in the morning that coffee existed. “Hopefully they’ll give you some different medication tomorrow, or something, I’m sorry that I don’t know how this works.”

 

“They keep telling me it takes a while to get in to my system to do whatever it’s supposed to do...but I know what it’s doing, and how I’m feeling, why do I need to wait?”

 

“That’s why you need to go to your appointments and tell them.”

 

“I’m so, so, sick of this. I just don’t want to feel like this anymore. I’ve been such a burden to you.” Fennel tightened her grip on Aurea’s arm for half a second before letting go entirely, if only to push her hair out of her eyes. “You know...I always used to look forward to dreaming...good dreams, bad dreams, whatever. I know for a fact it makes different types of dream mist, and it was something I wanted to study for a while, but not anymore.”

 

“I think that you should try to sleep, but if you don’t want to, I’ll stay up and watch some movies with you, or whatever you want to do.”

 

Fennel gave a shrug at the suggestion, not caring one way or the other. “I’m okay with us just sitting here, especially if you have stuff to do. You can sleep if you need to.”

 

Aurea removed the remote from the night stand, hitting a few buttons and scrolling through various streaming services until she found something that would keep the other woman distracted. For some reason, Fennel always liked the cartoon Ponytas. She never appeared to react to anything happening on the show, but it seemed to calm her down. It wasn’t that the professor was annoyed with her, let alone mad or even upset, it just felt as if she repeated herself every single day since she had been there with no improving results. Every conversation seemed to put Fennel on the defense when there was no reason for her to be, or the opposite to which she became confrontational over nothing and never an inbetween.

 

She’d stay up all night watching silly cartoons if it meant a few hours of peace for the dream scientist.


End file.
